Leaks are something of a self-perpetuating, vicious cycle within the Trump White House. The more Trump does highly questionable things against his advisers' advice, the more it seems to leak out, the more Trump believes the deep state has penetrated his White House, and the more he disregards his advisers. It also seems entirely possible that these same aides see embarrassing Trump as the only way to get his attention or prevent him from doing bad things. Other leaks coming out of the White House seem similarly geared toward righting the ship on key matters. Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci — whom Trump briefly installed to root out White House leakers — described it like this in July: “There are people inside the administration that think it is their job to save America from this president.”The line between trying to save the nation from Trump and trying to save Trump from himself is a thin one — as is the line between leaker and whistleblower.

Source: Washington Post March 21, 2018 16:19 UTC